Not meeting bonus spend on Amex

[Anonymous]

This is what I did with my SW Visa to get the 50k bonus rewards when I had to spend 3k in 3 months.

I used the card to pay all my utilities which I usually pay cash for like:

Cellphone

Gas

Cable

Lunch/Food

Grocery Shopping

It added up in no time BUT since you only have 4 days pay off some utilities then take your cash and pay back the card.

[Anonymous]

Pass up free $100+ dollars? The economy must be good.

[jm1991]

wow, i would have spent 1k in no time. maybe use online portal to buy gift cards that you can use later on? i have marriott rewards and use their online portal which gives me 1 marriott point per $ on giftcards.com and my amex gets another 1pnt/$ for spend, so essentially getting 2pnts/$. Although Visa cards are inelegible for the marriott point, i buy gift cards that i will forsure use later on like Gamestop, Macys, Amazon, bestbuy, ect. I have stocked up many of these cards for shopping during christmas or balck friday. I try to buy only e-gift cards to save on shipping and no restaurant gift cards since i could get 2x by just paying with my marriott card anyways. 

[Anonymous]

Whether or not to use the points on a cash-equivalent is an ethical question at this point for you. You're only supposed to get 2x points at grocery stores, so purchasing a gift card violates the spirit of the points or works around the problem, depending on your point of view. It won't raise a red flag this week, since everybody's purchases are spiking for Thanksgiving, and you're only picking up another $400, not the $1500 some people have been trying to get away with. I think that if you don't make it a habit, you'll be fine getting the cash equivalent. That said, if it bothers you, you could always pick up an Amazon gift card, which is not a cash-equivalent, and use that for your christmas shopping. 

[longtimelurker]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Whether or not to use the points on a cash-equivalent is an ethical question at this point for you. You're only supposed to get 2x points at grocery stores, so purchasing a gift card violates the spirit of the points or works around the problem, depending on your point of view. It won't raise a red flag this week, since everybody's purchases are spiking for Thanksgiving, and you're only picking up another $400, not the $1500 some people have been trying to get away with. I think that if you don't make it a habit, you'll be fine getting the cash equivalent. That said, if it bothers you, you could always pick up an Amazon gift card, which is not a cash-equivalent, and use that for your christmas shopping. 

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$1,500 is unlikely to cause problems either!   It took Amex 10 months of me spending $25-30K per month to care (and then they cared a lot!)

[Anonymous]

I did it!

Now hopefully they don't screw me out of those points

[Anonymous]

No gift cards. Just a couple of big (big for me) online shopping trips

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
No gift cards. Just a couple of big (big for me) online shopping trips

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Congrats! Whether Christmas or something nice for yourself, I wish you luck!

[credit-hunter]

WoW  i would love to hear that story you were a MS machine 

[OnTheRebound]

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@Anonymous wrote:
No gift cards. Just a couple of big (big for me)online shopping trips

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Someone correct me if I'm wrong but don't online purchases charge your account after the purchase is shipped? If that's the case, you still won't meet the minimum spend?